The present invention relates generally to turbine rotors and, more specifically, to a system for the axial retention of a turbine rotor rim seal mounted on a turbine rotor spacer disk.
Turbine rotor spacer disks are provided with a plurality of rim seals in the form of arcuate seal segments, which, when installed, form a 360° seal. Each seal segment (or, simply, seal or rim seal) is secured to the spacer disk by means of mating dovetail surface features that are configured to enable axial loading of the rim seals onto the spacer disk. Once the rim seals are installed on the spacer disk, there is only limited access to the dovetail area. At the same time, however, the rim seals must be retained axially to prevent slip particularly during engine shipment/operation. Because of the limited access, conventional axial retention schemes cannot be employed.
There remains a need, therefore, for a simple, low-cost yet effective arrangement for retaining an entire circumferential set of rim seals individually and collectively on a rotor spacer disk so as to prevent undesirable axial shifting of any one or more of the seals.